TWD - Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

Coming from page 321 of Baking, is this pie that is a combo of pumpkin and pecan pie. Now, I'm a huge fan of pecan, but not of pumpkin. This turned out to really be a pumpkin pie with some pecan goo on top. Not my style. But I took it to the in-laws house and it all got eaten! That's one in the success column to me.

Please go to La Casserole Carree by Vibi to view the recipe for this pie. You can cut two pies down to one this Thanksgiving and make everyone happy!

The only change I made to the recipe was to leave out the rum. No pictures this time - it all got eaten before I could get one!

TWD - Arborio Rice Pudding

This week's recipe was chosen by Isabelle of Les Gourmands d'Isa. It can be found on pages 412-413 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.




It's a very simple recipe, but I wasn't content to do simply vanilla or chocolate rice pudding - I added 1/4 up pumpkin and the typical spices. It was great!

The texture of the rice was awfully soft, a little more than I'm used to, and it was a little more soupy, but it was fine. I'm actually not a big fan of rice pudding, so I probably won't make it again.

TWD - Rugelach

This week's recipe comes from Piggy of Piggy's Cooking Journal. Rugelach is a typically Jewish dessert made with a tender dough that uses both butter and cream cheese. They bake up very tender and flaky.

I made rugelach several years ago for Christmas from a Martha recipe, and I remember it being a drawn-out mess of a recipe that yielded a fantastic result. I believe we made it with apricot filling... Dorie's uses jam, cinnamon sugar, currants, nuts, AND chocolate. I cut out the currants because I didn't have any, and decided to get creative and use leftover Halloween candy for the chocolate part.



Dainty little pastries

I used Hershey's bars, Baby Ruth, Snickers, and Butterfinger bars, but honestly, when they baked up I couldn't tell much of a difference.

The dough tastes wonderful and very rich, but I didn't care much for the filling. I think I'd rather utilize a pure-fruit filling next time. I know, call me crazy!

The dough gets rolled into a 12-inch circle then cut into sixteenths. This made for very small crescents to get rolled up and I found it to be very fiddly. Next time I'd just cut them in 8 I think.

Not a bad recipe, certainly, but not my favorite.

Great Granola

I just about died when I saw the prices for granola in the store recently (and cereal in general). I came right home and scrounged up some recipes for homemade granola and made this one of things I like.

It turned out SOOO good. I've taken to giving some to my neighbor who pronounced I could "charge $12 a pound for this stuff!" I think that is a good endorsement, indeed.



Great Granola

2 cups regular or quick-cooking oats, not instand
1 cup sweetened dried coconut flakes
1 1/2 cup chopped nuts (I often do a combo of chopped pecans and sliced almonds)
6 T oil (something without flavor, like vegetable, canola, etc)
4 T honey
1/4 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment or foil. Mix all ingredients well in a large bowl. Sprinkle on the baking sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes, keeping your eye on it often. At halfway, stir the granola on the sheet, moving the outside pieces in. You want to really watch the granola, as it can go from golden brown to burned in no time. You want it to be just a light blonde, a little lighter than you'd think it would need to be. It will bake a tad longer in the time it cools. Cool on the sheet and then package in airtight container.

You can play with the sweetener - using maple syrup or a combo of maple syrup and honey. Feel free to play with the nuts, seasonings, etc. Add ginger, allspice, whatever!

After it's cool, feel free to add whatever dried fruit you like, but I often sneak it plain. I also enjoy it with dried cranberries and cherries on my yogurt.